Descriptions of past and present genocide dominated talks by two guest speakers at a coffeehouse sponsored by STAND, the student anti-genocide coalition.
After a performance by singer-songwriter, junior Erin Eller, Holocaust survivor George Rabinek spoke at the Nov. 4 event. He described his experiences in multiple concentration camps, stressing the importance of awareness and action.
   “Many people saw the murders take place and turned their backs,” Rabinek stated. “I hope you will look into what is going on in the world and try to help fellow citizens avoid persecution from unnecessary hatred.”
   Seized by Nazi forces as he was walking through his hometown in April 1944, Rabinek spent six months to a year in three camps, including Buchenwald, one of the largest camps in Germany. He was forced to dig ditches near the Danube River, working at night under armed Nazi guard.  He was blunt in criticizing his captors.
   “It’s horrible how close they were from slipping away completely from being human beings,” Rabinek said.
   As the audience sipped tea and coffee, he described the psychological toll of his experience.
“When in a situation like a concentration camp, you don’t really talk to the other people,” Rabinek said. “You try to stay internal; you mostly just shuffle past each other, like you are at a funeral, which in a way, you are.”
   Moved to Ravensbruck in Brandenburg, Rabinek was forced to help make German aircraft. He spent about five months there until being liberated by Americans in May 1945. Most memorable of his experiences, he said, was gaining freedom.
  “As we stood and watched the Jeeps come over the horizon, a group of people standing together started to sing Germany’s national anthem, slowly. Others joined in, and it was the most humanizing feeling I’ve ever experienced.”
  During intermission, vocalist Rachel Zuckerman, a senior, led the audience in a sing-a-long featuring John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Afterward, Angie Hong, the president of Invisible Children, a service organization at Towson University, addressed the crowd on efforts to end the longest running civil war in   Africa. For 25 years, rebels in Uganda have fought to overtake Uganda’s government.
   Hong, who traveled to Uganda at 17, shared video images of war-ravaged Ugandans. Among the images she shared was a scene featuring five to 12-year-old boys holding rifles. Another was of a young boy crying and telling the cameraman that he wanted to die to be with his brother.
  As the audience murmured over such images, Hong stressed that more than 300,000 Ugandan children have similar stories.